Hies Loricoda language guide
Alphabet The alphabet of [[Hies Loricoda]], developed by later humans in the [[Gaedera#Elin era .288.2C000 POG -.29|Elin era]], has twenty-three graphemes (i.e. characters). It is not written in any particular direction, but has additional symbols marking the starting point of reading. The absence of a prescribed writing direction might be attributed to the fact that writing was often carved into wood or rock, or written with pieces of chalk, for ritual purposes. In the standard [[Bel|Belan]] conversion, Hies Loricoda makes use of only eighteen letters: a, b, c, d, e, g, h, i, l, m, n, o, r, s, t, u, v, and x. The last five are translated as digraphs: rr, gh, ei, ia and iu. All other sequences of two vowels are to be pronounced as two syllables separated by a glottal stop: for example, ''hies'' ("whisper") is pronounced /hiʔes/ (HEE-eis) with a glottal stop between the i and the e. Syllables are generally characterised by a consonant onset, a vowel peak and a consonant coda (l, m, n, r, s or t). Of these, only the vowel is obligatory. Pronunciation Of these, only ⟨r⟩ and ⟨x⟩ are pronounced differently from how they are in Belan (and English): ⟨r⟩ is lightly trilled, while ⟨x⟩ is a different sound: it is an aspirated k, a k pronounced with a burst of air. Unlike with the consonants, where only six are legal syllable or word codas, any of the vowels may be found at the end of a syllable or word. ⟨rr⟩ is pronounced like the English r. Essential vocabulary Articles Hies Loricoda has three articles: * ''i:'' definite, selected/focused/newly-introduced, i.e. "this" * ''ei: ''definite, unselected/unfocused/known/generic, i.e. "that" * ''lei: ''indefinite article, i.e. "some" or "a certain" ** '''''lei''' elin xa mirototixela; '''''some''' person has not been planting the crops If there is no noun associated with these articles, they are modified to indicate plurality in the same manner as nouns and verbs: * ''iral: i ''+ plural modifier'' ral, ''"these" ** '''''iral''' se xor; '''''these''' are bad * ''eiral: ei'' + plural modifier ''ral'','' ''"those" ** '''''eiral''' se xor;'' '''those''' are bad * ''leiral:'' ''lei'' + plural modifier ''ral'', "some [several]" Otherwise, if a noun is present, it is legal to leave the articles unmodified. * ''ei colta: ''this potato vs. ''ei coltaral: ''these potatoes Pronouns Hies Loricoda does not differentiate between subject and object with pronouns: word order always marks the distinction. * ''mei'': I/me * ''miu'': you * ''ha: ''it, for inanimate entities * ''hei: ''they/them (singular), for animate entities Once again, pronouns are modified to their plural forms in the same manner as nouns: * ''meiral'': we/us * ''miural'': you (plural) * ''haral: ''they/them (plural) Particles A few particles exist in the Hies Loricoda language--words that cannot be inflected and act primarily to mark the relationships between the nouns and verbs in the sentence. * ''se'': affirmative particle, "is"/"does", a statement of the existence or definiteness of the verb that follows; this word is also used as an interjection that means "yes" or "can do" ** ''mei,'' ''meida colta '''se''' coreten: ''I '''did''' eat my potato * ''xe...xa'': negative particles, "is not"/"do not", a statement of nonexistence/definite negation of the verb that follows; ''xe ''is placed before the object ** ''ei'' ''haloce '''xe''' secana e '''xa''' ocatano'''xadia''': ''that bird '''cannot''' escape from (its) cage * ''siun'': simple future particle, indicating a definite future event that will happen even with no agents to act upon it ** ''i'' ''cor '''siun''' xehet: ''this food '''will''' rot ** Compare ''mei,'' ''i'' ''haloce ocat'''iun''''' (intent) with ''mei, i haloce '''siun''' ocat'' (statement of definite outcome) Inflections The vast majority of inflections in Hies Loricoda take the form of suffixes, or fixed sequences of letters appended at the ends of words. These suffixes may be concatenated, or, a word may have more than one appended at the end. Typically they combine in an intuitive manner, affixed to the word one after another in a particular order dictated by convention. Consider an example: * ''elot'': "devotion to spirituality" (noun) * ''elota: elot'' + pertinence suffix ''a, "''pertaining to devoting oneself to spirituality" (adjective) * ''elotalin: elot'' + pertinence suffix ''a'' + membership suffix ''lin'', "a person who devotes themself completely to a spirituality" However, exceptions do exist--especially where the negator "xa" is involved--in which a particular combination of suffixes may give rise to an unexpected new spelling. Normally, words are inflected differently depending on whether they end in a vowel or a consonant. Sometimes, special rules are associated with words whose final syllable has a consonant repeated in the suffix. Nouns Plural suffix The plural suffix indicates that there are more than one of the given noun. Pertinence suffix The pertinence suffix modifies the noun N to an adjective that generally means "pertaining to N". This becomes a noun suffix (modifies a verb to a noun) when applied to a verb. Adjective suffix Verb suffix Ambiguity often abounds as to what "perform an action relating to [noun]" might mean, but the meanings are normally established culturally and in common usage for different words. Membership suffix Generalisation suffix The generalisation suffix is a fairly unique feature of Hies Loricoda. It modifies the noun X to a noun meaning "the group of things related to X". When applied to a verb, this becomes a pertinence suffix. Verbs Negator suffix Occurs together with negator particle ''xe.'' * ''Ha, '''xe''' hier'''exa''': ''It '''failed''' to fly. * ''Mei, '''xe''' ei haloce ocat'''exa''': ''I '''did not''' release the bird. This suffix only indicates the absence of an action, not the performance of the opposite. e.g. ''secaxa'', to fail to entrap, is not the same as ''ocat'', to release. In suffix order, the negative suffix generally has the highest priority and frequently gets further modified by other classes of suffixes, seen below. Passive voice suffix Intent suffix Gerund (noun) suffix Example sentence: ''i'' ''sagho, '''coretanora''' a xamireunen: ''The bread was saddened by its '''being eaten. '''Literal translation: (this) (bread), (the fact of being eaten) (by/following from) (became sad) Ability suffix Past tense suffix Present participle tense suffix Tense suffixes have lowest priority in suffix order; they are always appended at the end. Tense suffixes are unique in that negative forms do not include the negator "-xa"; rather, the tense suffix absorbs the negator. Adjectives Noun suffix